Category Archives: Daily News

World Water Week opens up this Sunday in Stockholm, Sweden. You can get details by going to www.worldwaterweek.org.

Some estimates say as many as 800 million people do not have sufficient access to water. That number will not decrease on its own. There needs to be an effort towards sustainability, and preservation of water for the world, or soon there will only be so many actions that will have any impact. What could those be? What happens when there isn’t enough water to go around for energy, medicine, agriculture, livestock, not to mention human consumption? You tell me in the comments.

World Water Week opens up this Sunday in Stockholm, Sweden. You can get details by going to www.worldwaterweek.org.

Some estimates say as many as 800 million people do not have sufficient access to water. That number will not decrease on its own. There needs to be an effort towards sustainability, and preservation of water for the world, or soon there will only be so many actions that will have any impact. What could those be? What happens when there isn’t enough water to go around for energy, medicine, agriculture, livestock, not to mention human consumption? You tell me in the comments.

I’m all for the ALS Ice Bucket challenge. Well, I’m all for raising money to combat the terrible disease known as ALS. But now the Ice Bucket Challenge should also be raising awareness of the water crisis we all face now, particularly in a small town in Scotland:

The water supply to the Inner Hebridean island, with a population of around 135 people was automatically switched off at least five times over the weekend after more than 100 residents took the ice plunge over their heads. The water supply had to be manually switched back on again to allow its residents access to H20.

Water is a natural resource with a limited end. We all need to figure out how to manage it. This type of problem isn’t just in small town in Scotland though. We have seen these crises pop up in Toledo and California lately. We all need water. We all need to preserve it.

As we’ve mentioned before, useable water is not distributed evenly throughout the world. Neither is the world’s population. But while many countries are already dealing with severe drought and water scarcity problems, India may be the first major country to do so.

A foreign study has warned India about an acute water scarcity by the year 2040 because of a clash of necessities – demand for drinking water and for cooling systems in power generation. Population increase as well as a significant rise in energy requirements is directly expected to lead to such a scenario, the study says.

2040… not that far away. How India reacts, and how it fails to act, may be a major teaching point for a lot of countries. Are we paying attention?

California has allocated five times more surface water than the state actually has, making it hard for regulators to tell whose supplies should be cut during a drought, University of California researchers reported.

Unfortunately, something too few seem to understand is that water is not infinite. It is a finite natural resource, and it can run out. In Inevitable that’s exactly what happens. How do you think we as a nation, or as a world, will prepare and deal for this coming crisis? Let’s hear from you in the comments.

Aquifers provide us freshwater that makes up for surface water lost from drought-depleted lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. We are drawing down these hidden, mostly nonrenewable groundwater supplies at unsustainable rates in the western United States and in several dry regions globally, threatening our future.

Inevitable sets out a story of how America will undoubtedly react to this problem, or more accurately fail to react. Now is the time, but like we see in Inevitable, we have done nothing. It will take an unmitigated crisis before anyone starts to address the drying Colorado River Basin and the Ogallala Aquifer. These are being depleted now, but they are not infinite. Like any natural resource they need to be preserved.

Now, across California’s vital agricultural belt, nervousness over the state’s epic drought has given way to alarm. Streams and lakes have long since shriveled up in many parts of the state, and now the aquifers — always a backup source during the region’s periodic droughts — are being pumped away at rates that scientists say are both historic and unsustainable.

When I hear words like “unsustainable” I think back to Inevitable. What also makes me think of my constitutional thriller novel is the fact that there is apparently zero political response to this problem. Now is the time, before its too late, but nothing is being done. California – and the rest of the West – is just crossing its fingers and waiting for rain. When it doesn’t come, will the government react as they did in the prologue of Inevitable? Check it out for free at the Kindle store by clicking here and then selecting “Send Sample Now” on the right hand side.